Rohit Sharma's struggle against the left-arm seamers continue as he bagged a golden duck in India's T20 World Cup opener against Pakistan. Rohit was trapped by Shaheen Shahid Afridi in the first over of the match. This was the first time, the Indian opener was facing the 21-year-old.
Playing in his seventh T20 World Cup, Rohit became the fifth Indian batter after Dinesh Karthik (2007), Murali Vijay (2010), Ashish Nehra (2010) and Suresh Raina (2016) to bag a first-ball duck in the mega event. It is also Rohit's third golden duck in the T20I format. His previous two first-ball ducks came against Australia and South Africa in 2012 and 2016 respectively.
This is not the first time, Rohit has struggled against the in-swinging deliveries from left-arm seamers. In World Cup 2019, it was Trent Boult who got an in-form Rohit out in the semi-final clash. He faced a similar problem against Australia's Jason Behrendorff as well.
Later in the powerplay overs, Afridi also got the wicket of opener KL Rahul with an in-swinging delivery from over the wicket. With the new ball, he bowled three overs and conceded 19 runs and provided two early breakthroughs to Pakistan at Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
